“Jieun! Get down here right now!” Jieun was in the process of putting up her hair when she heard her mother shouting downstairs.

“Coming, mom!” Jieun woke up in an unusually good mood that morning. She literally skipped down the stairs. Her smile faded when she saw her mother’s angry expression.

“What’s wrong?” Jieun’s mother had the best temper of anyone she knew. It took a lot to get her mad or to lose patience.

“Look out the window.” She gritted her teeth.

Jieun’s eyes widened.

Yongguk sat back in his chair, stifling a yawn. He was terribly sleepy, having got no sleep the previous night. It was already lunch, but he couldn’t wait to get home and take a nice, long nap. Perhaps he could go clubbing afterwards, it was close enough to the weekend.

The other members of B.A.P surrounded him at the marble table. Himchan leaned on his shoulder, resting his head. He was about to fall asleep, also. “Dude, last night was awesome.” Himchan mumbled, closing his eyes.

Yongguk rolled his eyes. “It was lightweight interesting. I would’ve done so much more if we had more time.”

Zelo shot Yongguk a glare when he wasn’t looking. He saw a picture of the damage that Yongguk sent him earlier. His heart wrenched when he imagined what Jieun was going through right now. He kept his eye out for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t seen the other girls either. Junhong wanted nothing more than to apologize to Jieun and her family. Without Junhong’s role in this, this could’ve all been prevented.

Damn Yongguk’s obsessive, perfectionist personality. Damn Yongguk’s scorn and resentment towards everything. It was tiring.

Daehyun and Youngjae were in their own world. They looked like they were watching videos on Daehyun’s phone. Jongup patted Zelo’s back. “You know how he is.”

“They shouldn’t have done it. We may be the cause of most trouble in this town, but they went too far this time.”

“I know. I feel bad about it. I don’t think she’s coming to school today.” Jongup studied the mass of students below them.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought about breaking in and wrecking things in the house. Who knows, maybe they would’ve kidnapped Jieun or something.” Zelo scoffed.

“For now, let’s just try to forget about it. I think Yongguk is satisfied with the situation at the moment.” Jongup and Junhong glanced at Yongguk, who had a scarce genuine smile on his face.

Damn Yongguk’s need for dominance and power.

“I suppose.” Junhong let out a long sigh.

Meanwhile, Yongguk and Himchan were telling Daehyun and Youngjae the events of last night. “And without our dearest Junhong, none of this would’ve been possible. You can thank him for our brilliant execution.”

“Is this true?” Youngjae and Daehyun were shocked.

Junhong gulped. “Yup…”

He could tell Youngjae was bothered by this, but he was scared of what Yongguk would say if he spoke out. “That’s… cool, Yongguk. Thanks for telling me.”

It was remarkable how his own friends couldn’t tell Yongguk everything he did was wrong. And Himchan went along with whatever he said. Himchan had pretty much been Yongguk’s sidekick since they were in diapers.

Suddenly, Zelo’s phone vibrated.

1 NEW MESSAGE

FROM: ZINGER ^^

You better have a good explanation for this, Choi Junhong. You have less than a minute to find one.

Oh crap. Zinger meant business, as she never addressed him using his full name. They had obviously figured out Yongguk was behind all of this.

He reread the message, noticing her second sentence. Wait, did that mean-

The doors to the cafeteria swung open, revealing four girls walking towards their regular spot rather fast. Once they sat down, the first thing Hana did was lock eyes with Junhong. She was beyond pissed.

Junhong felt like crawling into a dark hole and never coming back out.

He looked at Jieun. She had sunglasses on. That was odd. It was pretty sunny outside, but they were indoors now. Why wouldn’t she take them off?

Himchan saw the girls and stopped talking. Yongguk’s lips curled into a smirk. He slowly stood up, motioning for the other boys to follow him.

Yongguk kept his gaze on Jieun the entire walk over.

“Hey, why is the new girl wearing sunglasses?”

“Why is Bang going to talk to her?!”

“Shut up, I wanna see what’s going on!”

Junhong could hear the hushed whispers and not-so-hushed whispers around him. He tugged at the collar of his shirt, avoiding Hana’s look of disappointment that was directed towards him.

Yongguk stood behind Jieun. He placed both hands on the top rail of her chair. She didn’t even flinch. She looked lifeless at the moment, as if all emotion had been drained from her.

“You’ve got excellent composure if you were able to come to school today. I applaud you, Song Jieun. It’s impressive.” Yongguk drawled, pronouncing every syllable very carefully.

Jieun sipped what looked like herbal tea. Junhong noticed her hands were slightly shaking.

When she didn’t answer, he continued. “What did you think of my little show this morning?” He leaned down, his breath close to her exposed neck.

She ignored him, only gripping her travel mug tighter. He was annoyed that he wasn’t getting a reaction from her. “Cat got your tongue, Jieun?”

Jieun bit down on her lip so hard she was afraid it would bleed. His proximity was making her go crazy. It wouldn’t be long before she would lose it.

Her lips parted slightly. “Go away.” She said quietly.

“Hm? What was that? I couldn’t hear you.” Yongguk’s smirk was permanently etched on his face.

“Go. Away.” Jieun turned to face him. As soon as she saw Yongguk’s triumphant look, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“It’s not even bright in here, you should take off your sunglasses.” He took them off her face, brushing her smooth cheek in the process. Her eyes were full of tears and extremely bloodshot.

If this wasn’t public humiliation, Jieun didn’t know what was.

“Much, much better. So, let me ask you again. Did you like what I did? It must’ve surprised the Song household this morning.” The three other girls looked horrified. Even the B.A.P boys were taken aback. Yongguk had beaten up many guys at TS High before, but he had never attacked anyone this severely—emotionally and mentally, that is.

“You’re sick.” Jieun’s voice cracked, sounding hoarse.

“Which part did you like the best? The fact that I completely smashed all three of your cars? Or the fact that I vandalized your house and destroyed your front yard?” Yongguk asked.

“You disgust me.” Jieun looked weak.

“Oh, I could’ve done so much worse. You’re lucky I didn’t break in.” Yongguk was on a roll.

“Leave me alone.” She was on the verge of tears again.

“What did your parents say? I’m sure they were angry, right?”

“Stop it. Please.” Jieun stood up.

“Why should I? You should’ve known better than to mess with me.”

“I already said sorry. Isn’t that enough? I didn’t even mean to do it.” Jieun was begging by now.

Yongguk’s expression hardened. “Sorry isn’t enough. It doesn’t fix anything.” He tore his eyes away from her for a moment, as if remembering something else.

“What do you want from me?” She pleaded with him. She didn’t care how stupid and pitiful she looked right now, Jieun was already embarrassed enough as it was.

“I hope you’ve learned your place and got off your high horse.” He spat at her, just mere inches away from her face. His words were scathingly harsher than before. Junhong had never seen him act this way around a girl before.

“I have. I’m sorry.” Her lower lip trembled, but she nodded. A tear was threatening to roll down her cheek.

“Stop saying that!” Yongguk was unnerved by her apologies. Jieun looked so vulnerable to him, so easy to break.

This strong, resilient girl had been transformed by Bang Yongguk into the weakest, most pitiful girl alive.

He stared at her for a few more seconds before suddenly stalking off. The boys didn’t even follow him out the door, and he was relieved. He needed to be left alone.

Yongguk shuddered as Jieun’s pained face replayed in his mind.

It eerily reminded him of himself.

A/N: A shorter update, but I hope you enjoyed it!

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-Adri